Darry Curtis is the oldest brother of the three Curtis boys in The Outsiders.
He took on the father-figure role after their parents died.
Darry was a tough character, but he also had a lot of wisdom to share with his brothers (and us!)
Here are some of our favorite Darry Curtis quotes from The Outsiders:
The Outsiders Quotes With Page Numbers
Darry Character Description
Darry Curtis, the eldest brother of Sodapop and Ponyboy Curtis, is a tough, cool, and smart young adult, as described in “The Outsiders.”
He is a strong and muscular person who loves playing football. Despite his tough exterior, Darry shows remarkable responsibility, loyalty, resilience, and a strong work ethic toward his brothers.
After their parents died, he had to sacrifice his dreams of going to college and start working to care for his younger brothers. Darry’s character is portrayed as a firm with a serious personality and often described as having piercing eyes.
Darry is known for his hardworking nature and strong sense of responsibility towards his brothers. He works strenuously as a roofer, often taking on too much work to support his family. Due to these exertions, he often pulls muscles, as described in Chapter 1, Page 16.
Despite his stoic and sometimes aggressive demeanor, as mentioned in Chapter 1, Page 13, Darry cares deeply for his brothers.
This is proven in Chapter 6, Pages 98-99, when he breaks down in tears out of fear of losing someone he loves, showing his genuine fear of their safety.
The sacrifices that Darry makes for his family are quite evident. Despite being a really popular individual in school, achieving accolades such as being the football team captain and being voted Boy of the Year, he gives up his dream of higher education to support his family.
He doesn’t even find time to keep up with some of his social activities due to his overloaded work schedule (Chapter 1, Page 16).
The sternness and harsh demeanor that Darry often displays stem from a place of concern for his brothers. His commanding attitude, demonstrated through his dialogue in Chapter 1, Page 13, indicates his attempt to instill discipline and responsibility in his younger brothers.
He often pushes them, especially Ponyboy, to do better and doesn’t shy away from reprimanding them, as observed in Chapter 9, Page 136, when he shouts at Ponyboy, calling him a “Juvenile delinquent.”
Despite this stern exterior, Darry also showcases his softer side, particularly his interactions with his brothers. In Chapter 1, Page 16, he gently nests his brother Soda to rub his aching muscles harder. This moment showcases a softer, more playful side of Darry, which is a contrast to his otherwise austere persona.
Darry’s emotional side comes to the forefront during moments of crisis. His fear for Ponyboy’s safety is evident when he exhibits genuine fear at the prospect of losing his brother (Chapter 7, Page 110).
Furthermore, in Chapter 6, Pages 98-99, his silent tears confess his fear of losing another loved one, revealing his deep emotional bond with his family.
As a whole, Darry Curtis is a character of profound strength, responsibility, and deep familial love. His hard exterior masks a deeply caring and concerned brother who goes above and beyond in his duties to ensure the well-being of his family.
Although his methods may seem tough or harsh, Darry’s intentions always stem from his desire for the best for his brothers.
The Outsiders Characters List and Analysis
Darrel Curtis Physical Description
Darrel Curtis is described as being six-foot-two and broad-shouldered with a muscular build. He has dark brown hair with a slight cowlick in the back, and his eyes are like two pieces of pale blue-green ice with a determined set to them.
Despite being only twenty, Darry looks older than his years due to the responsibilities he has taken on in raising his younger brothers after the death of their parents.
Darrel Curtis Personality
Darry Curtis, the oldest of three orphaned boys in “The Outsiders,” is described as tough, cool, and smart. His character exhibits responsibility, loyalty, resilience, and a strong work ethic.
Darry can lose his temper easily, but he is also caring and selfless. He constantly looks out for his younger brothers and sacrifices his needs for their well-being. Overall, Darry is a dynamic character who changes throughout the story and has positive and negative traits.
Darry Quotes With Page Numbers From The Outsiders
“You don’t ever think,” Darry broke in, “not at home or anywhere when it counts.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Darry Curtis), Chapter 1, Page 13
“When I want my kid brother to tell me what to do with my other kid brother, I’ll
ask you– kid brother.”~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Darry Curtis), Chapter 1, Page 13
“Rub harder, Soda,” I heard Darry mumbling. “You’re gonna put me to sleep.”
I looked through the door. Sodapop was giving Darry a back-rub. Darry is always pulling muscles; he roofs houses and he’s always trying to carry two bundles of roofing up the ladder. I knew Soda would put him to sleep, because Soda can put about anyone out when he sets his head to it. He thought Darry worked too hard anyway. I did, too. Darry didn’t deserve to work.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Characters: Darry and Ponyboy Curtis as the narrator), Chapter 1, Page 16
“Darry didn’t deserve to work like an old man when he was only twenty. He had been a real popular guy in school; he was captain of the football team and he had been voted Boy of the Year. But we just didn’t have the money for him to go to college, even with the athletic scholarship he won. And now he didn’t have time between jobs to even think about college. So he never went anywhere and never did anything anymore, except work out at gyms and go skiing with some old friends of his sometimes.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Darry Curtis (Character: Ponyboy Curtis as the narrator), Chapter 1, Page 16
“I reckon it never occurred to you that your brothers might be worrying their heads off and afraid to call the police because something like that could get you two thrown in a boy’s home so quick it’d make your head spin.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Darry Curtis), Chapter 3, Page 50
“Suddenly I realized, horrified, that Darry was crying. He didn’t make a sound, but tears were running down his cheeks. I hadn’t seen him cry in years, not even when Mom and Dad had been killed. (I remembered the funeral. I had sobbed in spite of myself; Soda had broken down and bawled like a baby; but Darry had only stood there, his fists in his pockets and that look on his face, the same helpless, pleading look that he was wearing now.) In that second what Soda and Dally and Two-Bit had been trying to tell me came through. Darry did care about me, maybe as much as he cared about Soda, and because he cared he was trying too hard to make something of me. When he yelled “Pony, where have you been all this time?” he meant “Pony, you’ve scared me to death. Please be careful, because I couldn’t stand it if anything happened to you.” Darry looked down and turned away silently. Suddenly I broke out of my daze. “Darry!” I screamed, and the next thing I knew I had him around the waist and was squeezing the daylights out of him. “Darry,” I said, “I’m sorry . . .” He was stroking my hair and I could hear the sobs racking him as he fought to keep back the tears. “Oh, Pony, I thought we’d lost you . . . like we did Mom and Dad . . .” That was his silent fear then—of losing another person he loved. I remembered how close he and Dad had been, and I wondered how I could ever have thought him hard and unfeeling. I listened to his heart pounding through his T-shirt and knew everything was going to be okay now. I had taken the long way around, but I was finally home. To stay.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Characters: Ponyboy as narrator and Darry and Ponyboy), Chapter 6, Pages 98-99
“Darry spun around to face me, genuine fear on his face. “What?”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Characters: Ponyboy as the narrator and Darry Curtis), Chapter 7, Page 110
“Juvenile delinquent, you’re no good!” Darry shouted.
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Darry Curtis), Chapter 9, Page 136
“Maybe you can be a little neater, huh, little buddy?”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Darry Curtis), Chapter 11, Page 166
“You’re living in a vacuum, Pony, and you’re going to have to cut it out. Johnny and Dallas were our buddies, too, but you don’t just stop living because you lose someone.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, (Character: Darry Curtis), Chapter 12, Page 173
“…you don’t just stop living because you lose someone. I thought you knew that by now. You don’t quit!”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about friendship (Character: Darry), Chapter 12, Page 173
The Outsiders Cherry Valance Quotes
Quotes About Darry Curtis
“I mean, my second-oldest brother, Soda, who is sixteen-going-on-seventeen, never cracks a book at all, and my oldest brother, Darrel, who we call Darry, works too long and hard to be interested in a story or drawing a picture, so I’m not like them.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Darry (Characters: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 1, Page 2
“Like he’s never hollering at me all the time the way Darry is, or treating me as if I was six instead of fourteen.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Darry (Characters: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 1, Page 2
“But then, Darry’s gone through a lot in his twenty years, grown up too fast.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Darry (Characters: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 1, Page 2
“He’s always happy-go-lucky and grinning, while Darry’s hard and firm and rarely grins at all.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Darry (Characters: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 1, Page 2
“Darry would kill me if I got into trouble with the police.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Darry (Characters: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 1, Page 3
“Soda tries to understand, at least, which is more than Darry does.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Darry (Characters: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 1, Page 3
“Or I could have gotten one of the gang to come along, one of the four boys Darry and Soda and I have grown up with and consider family.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Darry (Characters: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 1, Page 3
“They would have gone with me, or driven me there, or walked along, although Soda just can’t sit still long enough to enjoy a movie and they bore Darry to death.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Darry (Characters: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 1, Page 3
“It drives my brother Darry nuts when I do stuff like that, ’cause I’m supposed to be smart; I make good grades and have a high IQ and everything, but I don’t use my head.'”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Darry (Characters: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 1, Page 4
“Darry isn’t ever sorry for anything he does.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Darry (Characters: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 1, Page 6
“Darry thinks his life is enough without inspecting other people’s.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Darry (Characters: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 1, Page 6
“I could tell it was Darry though— partly because of the voice and partly because Darry’s always rough with me without meaning to be.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Darry (Characters: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 1, Page 6
“My father was only forty when he died and he looked twenty-five and a lot of people thought Darry and Dad were brothers instead of father and son.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Darry (Characters: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 1, Page 6
“Darry is six-feet-two, and broad-shouldered and muscular. He has dark-brown hair that kicks out in front and a slight cowlick in the back— just like Dad’s— but Darry’s eyes are his own. He’s got eyes that are like two pieces of pale blue-green ice. They’ve got a determined set to them, like the rest of him. He looks older than twenty— tough, cool, and smart. He would be real handsome if his eyes weren’t so cold. He doesn’t understand anything that is not plain hard fact. But he uses his head.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Darry (Character: Ponyboy Curtis as the narrator), Chapter 1, Pages 6, 7
“His eyes are dark brown—lively, dancing, recklessly laughing eyes that can be gentle and sympathetic one moment and blazing with anger the next.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Darry (Character: Ponyboy as the narrator), Chapter 1, Page 8
“How come you like fights, Darry?”
…He just likes to show off his muscles”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Darry (Characters: Ponyboy and Sodapop), Chapter 9, Page 133
“Soda fought for fun, Steve for hatred, Darry for pride, and Two-Bit for conformity.”
~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, about Darry (Character: Steve Randall), Chapter 9, Page 137
What Is Darry Curtis’s Age?
Darry Curtis is 20 years old in The Outsiders.
What does Darry want to control in The Outsiders?
In The Outsiders, Darry wants to control the behavior and actions of his younger brothers, particularly Ponyboy, due to his stress and lack of experience as a parent figure.
Darry’s high hopes for his own future are derailed by the responsibility of caring for his minor brothers after their parents’ deaths. He takes his role as head of the household very seriously, which sometimes leads to conflict with Ponyboy.
What is Darry’s best accomplishment in The Outsiders?
Darry’s best accomplishment in The Outsiders is his unwavering commitment to keeping his family together and providing for them after their parent’s death.
Despite being only twenty years old, Darry was responsible for being the sole provider and caregiver for his younger brothers, Ponyboy and Sodapop.
He gave up his dreams of becoming an athlete to work long hours and multiple jobs to ensure his family had food, shelter, and clothing.
Darry’s love for his family and his determination to keep them together is evident throughout the book, and his sacrifices and hard work show his strength and selflessness.